Polk Drives Expansion into China

Motor vehicle information and marketing solutions provider R.L. Polk & Co. last week announced that it will soon offer newer commercial vehicle registration data for China. The data will provide geographic and vehicle configuration detail for customers interested in understanding the commercial vehicle market in China.

The data, which will be available this summer, will be offered by Beijing Polk-CATARC VIC Co. Ltd., a joint venture between Polk and the Chinese Automotive Technology and Research Centre (CATARC). Customers will now be able to receive geographic metrics on commercial vehicle registrations in China by province, city, district and postcode. Those customers, which include commercial truck and engine manufacturers, could previously only receive national level sales and production data.

Polk's China registration data includes a variety of commercial vehicles, including buses, trucks and special vehicles (ambulances, police vehicles, cranes and firefighter engines). Various vehicle specifications will also be included: from gross vehicle weight, vehicle dimensions, dimension of cargo and payload to towing weight, wheelbase, engine model, engine displacement, fuel type, number of wheels and tire type.

Databases that cover China are still very rare in the marketplace, and that really makes this offering quite intriguing and interesting. Still, that lack of such available data doesn't mean there isn't a strong interest in this information. In today's global marketplace, the demand for such data is undoubtedly increasing at a steady pace. In fact, Polk has identified China as one of the largest and fastest growing commercial vehicle markets in the world.

This new offering will effectively expand Polk's international profile and fill a need that continues to grow. "Going global" certainly isn't anything new for Polk, which while headquartered in Southfield, Mich., has offices in countries such as France, Germany and the U.K. The company will most likely explore further development of products in these regions. Perhaps this latest launch will lead to the creation of additional products geared toward the China market.